Begin with "Sex and the Single Girl," of course. One of her later books, "Having It All," was one of the most influential books in my my life.
She was not a scholar, she was not a deep thinker, but she was a strong, positive-thinking woman whose natural feminism was fueled by the more radical and more angry politics of the doctrinaire feminists, who were mostly annoyed by her.
"Having It All" came out in 1982 and described "mouseburgers" as women who are not pretty, who only have a decent education, and who don't come from wealthy or influential family backgrounds. In other words: Everywoman. She gave them rules, tools and techniques that could help them develop the street smarts they needed to gain "deep love, true friends, money, fame, satisfying days and nights."
I still don't know why this book influenced me so much, but the book was better than therapy for me.
